Confusion
by Zenelia
Summary: Lily's very confused about her relationship with James, so she breaks up with him. Then, after a couple of visits from Captain Obvious, Lily talks to James. Will they get back together? One-shot.


**A/N:** Well. . . This is a story, that I wrote. (I'm emulating Captain Obvious.) I got the idea when I was listening to my friends. They were doing sort of the same thing, I just put Lily and James in their place. But don't tell them that, haha! Anyways. . . Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Oh yeah, I totally own HP. And JKR is a measly high school student who is ignoring her last summer assignment. *note: Sarcasm* If you believe that, you need your head checked. . .

* * *

Things had been going great. Lily had finally gave in to her feelings, and agreed to a date with the one and only James Potter. She ended up having so much fun with him on that date, that she went on another and another, until they were considered dating as an item. With it having snuck up on her, Lily didn't seem to mind as much—she was rather enjoying herself.

But, she wasn't certain that this is what she wanted—at least not to the extent that James wanted it.

Sure, it was nice having him as a boyfriend, and it was surprisingly pleasant to get to know him as _him_, not the arrogant prat she thought he was before.

Maybe she was just confused. Lily got confused in relationships a lot. (Not that she had really ever had a previous relationship; James usually warded off any potential suitors with some crazy, thought-up story, which usually made it around school within the day, much to Lily's chagrin.) She kind of hoped she was just confused, and that things would clear up in her head soon.

A few weeks later, and Lily was still in the same predicament. She was befuddled, and unsure. She didn't even know what she was going to do about it.

_It's all so complicated!_ She thought, as they walked down the hall ways, hand-in-hand, for evening Head patrols.

James had started to notice. He'd noticed a while back, of course, but tonight was the night he had decided to say something about it.

"Hey, you alright, Lily-flower?" He asked, straight and to the point.

"Hm? Oh, yes. Quite fine," Lily replied, leaving James to poke her head in a dark alcove where she heard some noise. It turned out just to be one of the smaller suits of armor, walking about the castle.

James had waited for her, one hand in his pocket, the other hanging about his side, ready to take her hand again as soon as it were in reach. "You can drop the act, you know. I can tell something's up."

Lily played innocent. "What act?" James gave her look, and she sighed.

"You know me better than I know myself sometimes. I don't exactly want to talk about it. . .," she tried to stall. She knew it wouldn't work, but hey, a girl could try, right?

"Well, I think it'd be best if you _did_ talk about it," James gently pushed, even if he was a tad nervous about what was bothering her, and what it meant for him.

Lily refused to talk for the rest of patrols. She was scared this would turn into a fight (not that that they hadn't had fights before, but this would be their first big fight as a couple. If it even turned into an argument; Lily never knew how James would take things), and she didn't want a fight in the corridors, at night, when they were supposed to be patrolling.

James was a patient bloke, and he tried his best not to get irritated with her. He kept thinking about how lucky he was just to be able to call her his girlfriend.

Soon, though, they had finished and made their way back to the Head dorms. Once they made it through the portrait hole, James stopped her.

"Now, we're alone, in our own common room, won't you tell me what's bothering you now?" He asked.

Lily took a deep breath through her nose, and sighed. "I guess I should. I just don't know how to start. . ."

"How about at the beginning?"

"That seems like a good place to start. Well. . . Are you happy?"

James was thrown by that for a second. "Of course I am. I finally got the girl I love," he answered, his voice hesitant and a bit unsure.

"Oh, stop saying that! You can't possibly love me! We're only 17, we're practically still kids!" Lily had started pacing, wringing her hands.

"Lily? What's going on?" James was suspicious, and didn't really like where this was going. "What does that have anything to do with us?"

"Because! You can't love me! It was always the running gag: you'd say you love me, ask me out, then I'd reply with some witty remark and stalk off. You were never serious about that, were you? I mean, you can't have been. We're too different to love each other. We're like. . . like. . . like water and oil. We just don't mix!"

James had been quiet through this little tirade of Lily's. He was trying to figure out what she meant. "Are you saying . . . that you don't think . . . that I'm serious when I say I love you? That you don't think this will work?" He was trying not to get upset, or mad, but this was a personal hit, and it hurt.

Lily kept pacing, leaving James waiting for an answer in agony. "Yes. I'm pretty sure, yes. So, you're not completely daft, and I'm sure you've worked out that this is pretty much our break up." Lily turned around, angry at herself for the tears that sprang to her eyes, against her control. "See you around, James." She escaped to her room.

James hadn't said anything. He hadn't moved. He could barely think a complete sentence. _She. . . broke up . . . with me._

He kept blinking, trying to make sense of it, trying to see if there was any way he could fix it, even though he was almost certain there wasn't. _Well,_ he sighed both mentally and audibly,_ if it makes her happy, I guess that's for the best._ He kept trying to convince himself of that. It wasn't working.

What seemed like an eternity later—but was really only five minutes—he was able to get up, and slowly walk to his room. He let the door swing closed, and he collapsed on his bed, trying not to drown in his misery.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lily wasn't much better off. She had thought this is what she wanted, but the pain in her chest said it wasn't. _Just one cry. One really good cry, and then be done with it._ She allowed herself. This wasn't going to get her down. She was doing what was right, she was sure of it. Still, she fell onto her bed face first, and cried her heart out.

* * *

The next day in class, Lily sat next to her best friends Alice and Marlene. Lily had told them everything about the break-up, and though neither of them agreed with her, they supported Lily's decision. They figured that this was something she needed to do to realize how right she was with James.

The Marauders, though, hadn't heard a thing. They hadn't seen nor spoken to James since dinner the night before, and he had skived out on morning classes. Chatting amongst themselves, they decided to send Remus in to ask Lily what was going on.

So, after class, that's what he did. He caught up to her as she was leaving with Alice and Marlene. "Hey, Lily, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Oh, erm, sure Remus. I'll catch up with you two later," she told Alice and Marlene, and waiting by the quietest Marauder for the crowd to die down a bit.

"Do you need something?" She asked.

"Well, yes. Do you know where James is?"

"No. Why should I?" Lily was on the defense now, though she did reckon the Marauders hadn't found out yet, since James hadn't been seen since last night.

"Well, you _are_ his girlfriend, and usually couples know at least the general location of their significant others. . .," Remus said. He found her reply rather odd.

"Oh, well yes, they do. But I figure you haven't heard the news then. James and I broke up. Now, I really do need to get going. See you," Lily called over her shoulder as she made a quick get away. She really wasn't in the mood to talk about James.

"Uh oh. This can't be good." Remus rushed off to pull Sirius out of class—he'd use some prefect excuse, saying someone sent him there—and go find just how bad of shape James was in.

* * *

Remus said the password to the portrait that guarded the Head Dorms, and dragged a very disgruntled Sirius through. He hadn't explained anything to Sirius, who was quite upset that Remus had interrupted his nap session that was History of Magic class.

"Moony, why are we in the head dorms?"

Remus stopped and gave him a look. "To check up on Prongs."

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that he wasn't in class today?"

"Yes. Lily informed me that they. . . well, they broke up."

"Oh god." Sirius knew what the rush as now. He could only imagine how hard Prongs was taking this.

"My thoughts exactly." Remus came up to James' door, and knocked. "Prongs? You in there?"

Sirius joined in, banging on the door with his fists. "Prongs! Open up!"

They continued with this for about 5 minutes until James, who had been inside moping on his bed, yelled, "It's open for Merlin's sake! Stop all that racket!"

Remus and Sirius exchanged another look, and opened the door.

"Heh, sorry Prongsie. Guess we didn't think of trying to see if it was open," Sirius said, plopping himself down at the end of James' bed.

"You okay, Prongs? We heard the . . . erm . . . news." Remus came to sit on the other side of Sirius on James' bed.

James, however, decided not to answer and just fall back on to his bed again, burrowing himself into covers.

"That bad, eh?"

Prongs' head popped up. "Sirius, if the love of your life just left you because she thinks our whole relationship was a prank, what sort of shape do you think you would be in?"

"Oooh, you called me Sirius. Now I know you're serious. With an e-r-i-o-u-s." Sirius always felt the need to clarify which 'serious/Sirius' he meant. Especially when both were used in the same sentence.

"I can understand which serious/Sirius you mean by the context, thanks. I'm not a little kid," James snapped, disappearing from view again.

"Look, Prongs, this isn't the end of the world," Remus tried to comfort. "There are mo—"

"If you say 'There are more fish in the sea,' dear Merlin I will rip you piece to piece, Remus John Lupin, werewolf or not."

"Prongsie's touchy."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"No problem, Lieutenant Sarcasm." Sirius as used to pointing out the obvious—although to him it wasn't as much as pointing out the obvious as gracing the world with his 'observant-ness'—and he was accustomed to this response.

Remus disregarded the threat of dismemberment. "James, I know that you're taking it hard, but is it really necessary to lie in bed all day, wallowing in your own misery, then taking it out on your friends, who, might I add, are just trying to help?"

"For the record, I have not been laying in bed all day. It's not even lunch time, and I had to get up earlier to use the bathroom and take a shower."

"But you admit you've been wallowing in your own misery?"

"Why try to deny it?" James _was_ taking this hard. He'd just been broken up with by the only girl he ever loved, or ever will! That gave him every right to be upset, thank you very much.

"Prongsie. Come on to the kitchens! We'll help you eat your feelings. And we won't even stop liking you if you get as fat as Slughorn!" Sirius suggested, feeling like that would help James feel better.

"I won't get as fat as Slughorn, thank you. And I'm not even that hungry."

"I like Padfoot's idea. Let's go to the kitchens. If you're not hungry, Prongs, why was there just a suspicious 'gurgling' noise coming from your general direction?" Remus asked, getting up to ruffle through James' wardrobe to throw some clean clothes at him.

"It's a natural bodily function. Besides, my stomach's just trying to digest itself. No biggie. What are you doing with my clothes?"

"Ooooh, is dear ol' Moony taking mementos from this momentous occasion?" Sirius teased.

"Don't be daft. I'm getting clothes for Prongs. He's going to change, and then we're dragging him at least down to the kitchens for him to eat something. Then, we're going to take him outside. The fresh air will do him some good." Remus picked out the clothes that didn't necessarily match, but smelled the cleanest, and chucked them at James.

"You are, are you? And what if I don't cooperate?"

"You will." Remus used the tone he reserved for getting the Marauders back in line when they got too unruly.

James pouted. "Fine." He crawled out of bed, in just a pair of blue plaid boxers, grabbed the clothes that had been thrown at him, and picked his way across his messy room to his bathroom.

"Ya know, Moony, it's kind of scary how you do stuff like that," Sirius said, laying back on James' bed, now that he had vacated it.

"Yes, I suppose it is. But it comes in handy."

James came out of the bathroom, rumpled, but dressed. "There. I have clothes on. Happy?"

"Yes. Now, come on." Remus grabbed James and Sirius and pulled them out of the dorm. Sirius skipped ahead happily, while James just barely permitted himself to be dragged along.

* * *

James was lucky that it was time for class—just before lunch, in fact. He was glad that no one was in the corridors to see him. He was certain that, even though he was dressed and decent, he didn't look his best. He hadn't brushed his hair—not that it'd make a difference—and his face was pale. Not to mention that he just didn't want to see anyone right then.

Especially not Lily.

"Since it's not lunch time yet, we'll eat in the kitchens," Remus said, turning away from the Great Hall and towards the basement, so they could tickle the pare on the painting of a bowl of fruit.

"Even if it _was _lunch time, I would want to eat in the kitchens," James said, as they entered the world of the house elves, and taking a seat at a table they had put in there exclusively for their use.

"So it's a good thing either way," Remus replied, thinking on what he wanted to eat.

* * *

After they ate, lunch was over in the Great Hall (Remus had nudged Sirius and whispered this plan to him, to make sure James didn't run into anyone), and the corridors were empty once more.

"You two do realize your skipping classes, right?" James asked, as they directed their footsteps up to the Head Dorms again, rather than outside like they were originally planning. (It had started to rain.)

"Yes," was Remus' simple answer.

"Of course we're aware of it. But we don't want to go to class. Or, at least _I_ don't," Sirius said. "Besides, you needed some company." He shrugged.

"Yes, along the same lines as Padfoot: we're your friends, and you needed us more than we need to be in class. Friends come first," Remus added to his original answer.

James just stood there at the top of a stair case that was shifting, and smiled. _I have the best friends in the world. Who needs a girlfriend, when I've got friends like these?_ He asked himself, trying to boost the idea that he could live without Lily as his girlfriend.

"Thanks."

"No problem, Prongsie boy."

"It's nothing, Prongs. Really."

They climbed through the portrait hole, and James stopped short.

There was a certain red-head sitting on the couch. She turned when she heard the boys come in, and she looked only at James.

Who tried to hide as best he could, wanting nothing more than the earth to open up and swallow him whole into a black hole. Or that he had at least grabbed his invisibility cloak from his room before they had left for lunch, so then he could wrap up in it now.

"Hi, James," Lily said, when it had gotten eerily quiet, and no one was moving.

James said nothing for a moment. Then, "Hi," escaped his lips, very faintly.

"Well. . . I'll be going." Lily then got up, padded over to her room in her sock feet, and shut her door.

Remus and Sirius turned on James, assessing him, to make sure he was okay. "Prongs?"

James stared at the spot Lily had been sitting, then shook his head. "Huh?"

"You okay?" Sirius asked, concern taking over his rather handsome face.

"Oh, yes, quite. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh-huh. You're fine, and I'm the Queen of England. C'mon," Remus said, trying to drag the both of them off to James' room, but getting nowhere.

"What's a queen? Why would England have one?" James and Sirius asked. Remus rolled his eyes, but was glad James was distracted for a moment.

"If either of you had taken Muggle Studies, or grown up in the Muggle world, then you would know that a queen is a ruler, a leader. Much like our Minister of Magic. England has one because England—Muggle England—needs a leader just like every other place."

"Oh, I know what you're talking about, Moony! But . . . isn't a queen a girl?" Sirius liked making fun of Remus'—okay, _anybody's_—gender that he could.

Remus gritted his teeth. "It's a figure of speech, Padfoot. Not to be taken literally."

"Oh. If you say so."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Hey, where'd Prongs go?"

"Oh, shit, we lost him," Sirius said, as he looked around, as if his friend was just hiding in plain sight.

"Well, we'd better check his room first. He might have tried to crawl into bed again. He's taking this awful hard." Remus walked across the Head common room, and tried James' door. "Drat, he's locked it."

"_Alohomora_ it."

"Oh, compared to what, _accio_-ing it? _Alohomora_!" Remus pointed his wand at James' door, then tried it. "Do you have that unlocking knife on you? _Alohomora_ didn't work."

"Er. . . No. It's in my trunk. . . I think. . . Or did I let . . . No, it's at Grimmauld Place. I rushed out at the beginning of summer, and I forgot a few things."

"Oh, okay. Then there's only one thing we have left to do. JAMES, OPEN UP!" Remus started banging on the door again.

"Oooh, I wanna, I wanna!" Sirius rushed over and started hitting the door, too.

James, who was inside, face-down on his bed, ignored them.

After almost breaking James' door down, Remus and Sirius decided to give up. "Prongs? We can see you're not going to open up now, so we're going to leave. If you need us, you know where to find us," Remus called through the door.

James didn't answer.

"I think it was seeing Lily that did it," Sirius said on their way out.

"Captain Obvious strikes again," Remus replied, rolling his eyes.

* * *

Lily had heard Remus and Sirius trying to get James to open up. She felt horrible about the whole situation. The look he had given her when he saw her on the couch. . .

In truth, she was waiting for him. She wanted to talk to him. She didn't exactly know what she wanted to say, but she missed hearing his voice all the time. And this was only in the span of the day they had been broken up!

_Merlin am I pathetic,_ she thought. She was sitting on her bed when she made up her mind. She was going to go in there, knock on his door, hope he opened it for her, and talk to him.

She walked across the common room, and knocked softly on his door.

After hearing some crashes, and what sounded suspiciously like a curse, the door flew open. "I thought I told you to go aw—oh. It's you." His face was pale, and he had changed back into his 'pajamas,' which in this instance included pants.

"C-can we talk?" Lily asked, internally kicking herself for stuttering.

James blinked. "Sure, I suppose." Then he just stood there.

"Erm, how are you?" More internal kicking.

"I've been better," James said, walking out of his door way, and into the common room.

"Yeah, me, too."

They were silent for a moment, after having moved to the couch in front of the fireplace.

James broke the silence. "Why'd you want to talk to me, Lily?"

"B-because," Lily said, feeling lame, and looking down.

"That's not a reason. Now, if you will excuse me, I'll be going back to my wallowing." James got up and made to walk back to his room.

Lily stopped him. "Wait! I'm sorry. I wanted to talk to you because. . . because. . . because I'm sorry and I miss you!"

"Why would you miss me? You're the one who initiated the break-up. If anyone should be happy now, it's you." James was a bit bitter.

"James. . . I'm sorry. I was confused, and I guess this past day has shown me something. . .," Lily said, putting her head down again, and cursing the tears that sprang to her eyes involuntarily.

James looked at her. She was so small, so vulnerable. And he could tell she was crying. He hated it when she cried. She was always such a strong-willed person, not letting anyone tell her what to do (save the teachers, whom she listened to diligently), that seeing her cry was one of the worst things in the world.

"Hey, come here," he said, wrapping her up in his strong arms.

Lily cried into his chest for a short while, then she wiped her eyes and nose, and looked up at him. "Oh, you must hate me. First I break up with you, then I start crying my eyes out when I try to talk to you."

"I could never hate you, Lily. . . . Quite the opposite, actually." James took a deep breath, which Lily could hear and feel, seeing as she was still wrapped in his arms.

"Then could you forgive me? And act like last night never happened?" Lily looked straight into his hazel eyes.

James smiled. "Of course I can." He leant down, and placed his forehead against hers.

Lily let go of a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. "Good." She closed her eyes, and just took in the feelings she was having. The happiness that he didn't hate her, the warmth that they were back together, and the tingly sensation on her skin wherever his met hers.

A few minutes passed. "I think we need to make this official, Lily," James said, lifting his head.

"How so?"

He put his hand under her chin, and brought her face up to his, and kissed her. It was a sweet, yet passionate kiss. Both of their feelings being poured into it.

When the broke apart, James continued, "To seal it with a kiss."

Lily smiled. "I like that idea." And she stood on tiptoes and kissed him again.

* * *

**A/N:** Did you like? Confusing, slow, too fluffy, etc? Reviews make me happy :]

-Zenelia*Sky


End file.
